Renzi Stands by Eni CEO After Nigeria Investigation News

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi stood by his appointment of Claudio Descalzi as head of state-controlled oil major Eni after news the CEO was being investigated in a Nigeria graft case.

Descalzi, the former head of Eni's exploration and production unit named CEO by the treasury in May, is being investigated by Milan prosecutors over alleged corruption relating to a Nigerian oil deal worth more than $1 billion, Eni said on Thursday.

The case is an embarrassment for Renzi, who came to office earlier this year pledging to clean up Italian business after a string of damaging scandals and introduce ethics rules at state-controlled companies.

"I'm happy to have chosen Claudio Descalzi as CEO of Eni. If I had to, I'd do it again tomorrow," Renzi said in a comment posted on Twitter.

"I respect investigations and wait for the verdict."

Descalzi's predecessor at the helm of Eni, Paolo Scaroni, and another top manager at the company are also under investigation in the same case.

Attempts to reach both Descali and Scaroni for comment were unsuccessful, but Eni, the biggest foreign oil and gas operator in Africa, has denied any wrongdoing and said it was cooperating with Milan prosecutors.

Renzi's political opponents seized news of the investigation as an opportunity to attack him.

"It's egg on his face. He came to power promising to clean up business and we are worse off than before... and just four months after the Eni nomination," Vito Rosario Petrocelli, head of opposition party M5S in the upper house of parliament, told Reuters.

The state owns around 30 percent of Eni.

Earlier this year Renzi's centre-left government called on Eni and other state-controlled firms to introduce "honourability clauses" to eject directors found guilty of financial crimes.

But shareholders at Eni threw out the proposals by voting against their inclusion in bylaws.

The Nigerian probe has drawn attention from anti-corruption campaigners eager to make oil companies more accountable for dealings in resource-rich countries.

"(The investigation) news demonstrates our concerns ... and represents a further setback for the Italian government," said Antonio Tricarico, programme director at Global Witness, a group which campaigns for greater transparency in political and business dealings.

Eni shares were down 0.5 percent.

(By Stefano Bernabei and Stephen Jewkes, editing by Silvia Aloisi/jeremy Gaunt)